ETA Hoffmann: Inimical Force and Related Powers
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This dissertation has bhen microfilmed exactly as received 68-3074 SrURHOCK, Çlizabeth Zapf, 1931- E.t IÂ-, li§i*FMANN: ENIMICAI, FORCE AND RELATED POWEI%8. { The Ohio State University, Ph.D., 1967 Language and Literatt^e, modern University Microfilms, Inc., Ann Arbor, Michigan ©Copyright by Elizabeth Zapf Sturrock 1968 E. T. A. HOFFMANN: INIMICAL FORCE AND RELATED POWERS DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Elizabeth Zapf Sturrock, B.S., M.A. The Ohio State University 1967 Approved by Department of German ACKNOWLEDGMENT My special thanks go to my adviser, Dr. Wolfgang Wittkowski , for his help, encouragement, and unflagging good humor, under what were frequently difficult circumstances, in the completion of this project, I appreciate also the advice and encouragement of my other friends who are members, or former members, of the faculty of the Department of German. 11 VITA May 2, 1931 Born in Kent, Ohio 1953 B.S., Kent State University, Kent, Ohio 1953-1954 Teaching A ssistant, Department of Foreign Languages Kent State University, Kent, Ohio 1954 M.A., Kent State University 1954-1955 Fulbright Scholar, University of Wurzburg Wurzburg, Germany 1956-1959 Teaching A ssistant, Department of German The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 1959-1960 In stru cto r, Ohio Wesleyan University Delaware, Ohio 1961-1964 Instructor, Emory University Atlanta, Georgia 1965 to Present Instructor, Oglethorpe College A tlanta, Georgia i 11 CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGMENT .......................................................................................................... ü VITA.....................................................................................................................................ill Chapter I. INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................ 1 I I. ERROR: THE ENVIRONMENT OF THE INIMICAL FORCE. 38 I I I . THE IDEA OF PERSONAL FREEDOM: THE DEMONS WITHIN . 104 IV. THE REALM OF DARKNESS AND ITS INHABITANTS..........................124 V. THE THEME OF PRIDE AND PERSONAL ELEVATION........................171 VI. THE THEME OF REDEMPTION...................................................................211 VII. THE UPPER REALM......................................................................................230 V III. CONCLUSION...............................................................................................287 SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY..............................................................................................290 IV CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION Biographical Background Julius Eduard Hitzig and C. F, Kunz, E. T. A. Hoffmann's friends and earliest biographers, both comment upon the fact that Hoffmann believed in the existence of a dark power that affected his l if e , dashing his hopes and snatching away his dreams before they could become r e a l it ie s . Kunz c a lls Hoffmann one "who strived toward the highest purposes of intellectual development--and struggled, to a great extent, in vain, for from Hoffmann's birth until his death fate placed a vast stone in his path, as in that of so many other people, which, everywhere hindering his steps, confronted him and let him recognize at every turn his mistaken destiny."^ Hitzig reminds us that one of Hoffmann's favorite 2 sayings was: "Der Teufel muss auf Allés seinen Schwanz legen." ^ Z, Funck (C. F. Kunz), Aus dem Leben zweier D ichter: Ernst Theodor WiIhelm Hoffmann's und Friedrich Got11ob Wetzel's (Leipzig, 1836 ), p. 131 : "... der nach den hochsten Tendenzen intellektuel1er Entwicklung strebte,—und grossenthei1s vergebens rang, wei1 von Hoffmanns Geburt an, bis zu seinem Ende, das Schicksal ihm, wie so vielen Andern, einen gewaltigen Stein in den Weg legte, der ihm, liberal 1 seine Schritte hemmend, entgegen- tra t und ihn seine verfehlte Bestimmung, wo er sich hinwandte, erkennen liess." 2 Julius Eduard Hitzig, Aus Hoffmann's Leben und Nachlass (B erlin, I 823), I I , 311. 2 Another favorite was: "Mein Reich ist nicht von dieser Welt," Judging from these sayings alone, one is able to imagine a person who has suffered many disappointments and is uncomfortable in his surroundings—a logical candidate for one who would harbor a belief in an inimical force, A brief resume of the most im portant facts of Hoffmann's biography suffices to make his belief quite understandable, 3 Ernst Theodor Wilhelm Hoffmann‘S was born on January 24, 1776, in Konigsberg, After an unhappy marriage, his parents separated when he was only two years old. His older brother Karl remained with the father, Christoph Ludwig Hoffmann, while young Ernst Theodor went with his mother, Luise Alberti ne Hoffmann, nee Doerffer, to live with his maternal grandmother, a widow who lived in almost complete seclusion, Hoffmann's mother took little interest in her son, and he was brought up chiefly by her older brother, Otto Wilhelm Doerffer, a pedantic middle-aged bachelor who showed little understanding for the boy, but did in still in him the beginnings of his love for music, which was to be a source of solace and pleasure throughout his life. Hoffmann was of small stature and rather ugly in appearance. Although he showed early talent for music, drawing, and writing, his family insisted that he study law, as was traditional in the Doerffer family, although he had no interest in it, ^ Hoffmann retained the initials "E, T, W," for use in connection with his legal career. For use regarding his artistic efforts, he preferred "E, T, A,," the "A," standing for "Amadeus" in honor of Mozart, whom he revered especially. 3 Before he was twenty, Hoffmann fell in love with a young woman who had been a friend of his family for many years—Johanna Dorothea Hatt, nee Schlunck, whom he instructed in music. Although she returned his love, and indeed probably instigated the affair, the difference in their ages (more than nine years) and the fact that she was still married, although unhappily, proved to be too great obstacles. In 1796 he fled to Glogau, where he lived with the family of another uncle, Johann Ludwig Doerffer, who was a lawyer in the service of the Prussian government. When in 1798 the uncle was transferred to Berlin, Hoffmann accompanied the family. In Berlin Hoffmann passed his final legal examination, the AssessorprUfung, and was appointed to the office of Chancellor in the Supreme Court of Posen in Prussia's newly acquired Polish provinces. Already in Glogau Hoffmann had become engaged to his cousin, Minna Doerffer, but now he extricated himself from what he described as "a relatio n sh ip . which would have made her and me unhappy."^ His talent at caricature, sarcastically and indiscretely used, caused his d iscip lin ary removal from Posen to Plock, a forsaken Polish town of 3,000 inhabitants. Before his final departure for Plock in 1802, he married a young Polish g i r l , Maria Tekla Michalina ^ Hans von Muller, Die erste Liebe des Ernst Theodor Hoffmann. Mi t ei ni gen Nachrichten uber die Fami1i en Schlunck und Flottwel 1 , Hatt und Siebrandt nach den Q,uel len dargestel It (Heidelberg, 1955), p. 32. ^ 1* Hoffmann, Dichtungen und Schriften sowie Briefe und Taqebücher, ed. Walther Harich (Weimar, 1924), XIV, 161: " . ein Verbaltnis . , welches sie und mich unglUcklich gemacht haben wUrde." Citations from Hoffmann in my text refer to this edition, unless otherwise stated. 4 Rohrer (Mischa), a warm, simple girl without financial means, but of exceptional beauty, who remained his devoted companion until his death. In 1804 Hoffmann was transferred to Warsaw, where he fille d his free hours with composing, painting, writing, and in the company of the new friends he made there. In Warsaw he came into contact with the Romantic Movement of Literature for the first time and felt much drawn to it. When Napoleon's troops took possession of Warsaw and Hoffmann was relieved of his position, as were all his German colleagues, he remained in the city as director of the Warsaw Musical Academy, delighted to be rid of a post that had brought him no sa tisfa c tio n , and full of hope for a future devoted to music and the other arts. His ever increasing poverty forced him to send his wife, their only child, Cacilie (born in July, I 805), and Mischa's niece, who had been living with them for some time, to Mischa's family in Posen. After a serious illness, Hoffmann returned to Berlin, completely without funds, where he heard of Cacilie's death and the grave illness of Mischa. Eventually Hoffmann was offered the position of music director at the theater in Bamberg and moved there with Mischa in I 8O8 . Hoffmann was poorly received by the Bamberg audience and soon substituted for his original position that of theater composer. He supplemented his small salary by giving music lessons, sellin g sheet music, painting, constructing scenery for the theater, and writing. Most of his students were without ta le n t, which caused him much annoyance, but in one of them, a gifted young singer named Julia Mark, 5 he recognized the great love of his life, who dominated his thoughts during the Bamberg years and influenced his literary works more than any other person. Although Julia loved and respected Hoffmann as a teacher and friend, she did not fully realize the depth of his devo tion and the great part she played in his life. Again Hoffmann's love was hopeless--he was married and Julia was young enough to be his daughter. A few months after Julia's marriage to a well-to-do young merchant in December of 1812, Hoffmann left Bamberg to accept a position as orchestra leader with a theater that performed for alternating periods in Leipzig and Dresden. Plagued by poverty, ill health, danger from the war which was being fought all around him, unhappiness regarding the loss of Julia, and personality conflicts with his employer, Hoffmann longed more and more to return to the "safe harbor"^ of civil service, and through the untiring efforts of Theodor von Hippel, his oldest and dearest friend, now in a position of influence in the government, he was reinstated in 1814 in a govern ment post in B erlin, where he lived until his death in 1822.